The Tragedy Response Initiative Task Force invites you to a pre-conference event centered on investigating a framework to create a volunteer response network. This network would respond to the growing need for assistance in the collection and preservation of materials amassed after tragedies, both human-caused and natural disasters.
Goals for the foundation of this volunteer network would center on a community centric in-person and digital stewardship/conservation plan to assist communities responding to tragic events. The event aims to explore research amassed by the SAA Task Force as well as that of allied groups such as SAA’s own Disaster Planning and Recovery Subcommittee, AIC National Heritage Responders, and cooperative groups of museums, archives, and universities involved in earlier and current collecting efforts centered in repositories and communities across the United States.
Presenters and participants will review current projects (both successful and not), the development of team work (both volunteer and professional) in ensuring maintenance of records, and work completed by the Task Force thus far. We will engage all participants in various scenarios involving current and hypothetical documentation of tragedies.
This is the first of a number of endeavors by those charged with guarding the memory of events that have changed the way Americans think of themselves as well as their history. We intend to work toward a framework involving various constituencies who will create tools as well as facilitate funding and build bridges between yet others interested in this topic.
